Man, 44, caught in online sex sting

Published 11:21 pm Monday, October 1, 2007

MUKILTEO — A Mukilteo sex offender was arrested Friday after he allegedly arranged over the Internet to meet a 12-year-old boy for sex. Instead of a boy, the man learned he had been chatting up a female Snohomish County sheriff’s detective working undercover.

Mukilteo police were tipped off after the man, 44, allegedly sent child pornography over the Internet to an undercover police officer on the East Coast who had posed as a 14-year-old boy, according to documents filed in Everett District Court.

A Snohomish County sheriff’s detective set up an Internet profile of a 12-year-old boy, an avid Silvertips hockey fan. The detective posed as the boy to contact the man, whom police knew as a Level 1 registered sex offender, the documents said.

The pair chatted a few times using instant messaging software. The man talked about sex, sent the detective nude photos and described having sex with a different 12-year-old boy in front of a Web camera.

The man allegedly sent the detective a nude picture that he said was of the other 12-year-old.

He wrote that he wanted to have sex in front of a Web camera, the documents said.

The detective several times told the man that he was chatting with a 12-year-old, according to the documents.

When the detective posing as the “boy” agreed to meet the man in person, the suspect ended the chat by writing “k love you,” the documents said.

He was arrested behind a Mukilteo restaurant after he showed up for the meeting riding his motorcycle. He was booked for investigation of second-degree attempted rape of a child and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. He was being held on $50,000 bail.

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.